1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printer, and particularly to a thermal transfer printer characterized in a surrounding structure of a thermal head, and a method of removing an ink cassette.
2. Description of the Background Art
A conventional thermal transfer printer has a problem that an ink cassette easily interferes with a thermal head when the ink cassette with an ink sheet roll housed therein is mounted or removed in a longitudinal direction of the thermal head.
As a countermeasure to such a problem, Japanese Patent No. 3444669, for example, discloses a thermal transfer printer including a pressure welding and releasing system provided in a platen roller and a thermal head attached to a base, for facilitating the exchange of an ink cassette by employing a configuration of being rotatable with one end of a head mounting body consisted of the base and an upper cover as a fulcrum, or being movable in parallel.
The thermal transfer printer needs a regular cleaning since a lubricant agent or the like applied on a back surface of an ink sheet is accumulated on the thermal head by repeatedly printing. Further, it is necessary to exchange the thermal head when a heating element on the thermal head is damaged by progression of a thermal head wearing and by foreign materials entering on the thermal head. Particularly, while an industrial thermal transfer printer printing in large amounts often cleans and exchanges the thermal head, the thermal head of the thermal transfer printer disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3444669 is housed inside a device, so that it is difficult to clean and exchange the thermal head, making it more troublesome.
Since the thermal transfer printer in Japanese Patent No. 3444669 is configured to be rotatable with one end of the thermal head mounting body as a fulcrum, a thermal head part is exposed when the thermal head mounting body is widely rotated. As a result, the problem arises that the exposed thermal head part is damaged by making contact with the ink cassette when exchanging the ink cassette, or an user who has touched the high-temperature thermal head suffers burns.